LulzSec releases Arizona law enforcement data

LulzSec's latest hacking target is the Arizona Department of Public Safety.Photo by LulzSec

The hacker group LulzSec released what it said are sensitive documents from the Arizona Department of Public Safety today to protest the agency's "racial-profiling anti-immigrant" policies.

"We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal e-mail correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement," the group said in a statement on its site. "We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial-profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona."

SB1070 makes it a crime to be in Arizona without documentation proving United States residency.

The documents--classified as "law-enforcement sensitive," "not for public distribution" and "for official use only"--are "primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements," the group said. A Department of Public Safety spokesman told The New York Times that the data appeared to be authentic.

LulzSec, which has previously targeted Sony, the CIA, the U.S. Senate, and FBI partner Infragard, and announced a joint operation with the Anonymous group to go after government and financial targets earlier this week, said it plans to release classified documents and embarrassing personal details of military and law enforcement officials to reveal racism, corruption and to sabotage the "unjust 'war on drugs.'"

The documents, 446.6 MB worth of data, were available for download from The Pirate Bay. LulzSec did not say how the group obtained the documents.

Capt. Steve Harrison, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, confirmed to CNET that the agency's system was hacked. "We shut down external access to our servers," he said. "We're taking steps to secure our systems and looking into what documents they have released and what they may possess."

Meanwhile, LulzSec has been trading barbs back and forth with another hacker group, TeaMp0isoN, which claims to have defaced the Web site of a purported LulzSec member and has threatened on Twitter to "Dox" or publicly release documents with personal information of members of LulzSec members.

A key member of LulzSec, Topiary, told Gawker that he's not concerned about getting caught:"Worrying is for fools!"